Chapter 1 - In a lonely village...

In the lone world of Sphania, a place with no other worlds nearby to influence it, the beautiful land is seemingly split up between the different races. First with the creation of the earth came the spirits, immortal beings born from the earth and it's elements. Next gradually grew the animals, some species with the ability to take a different appearance as well as their own. This appearance became known as 'human'. From these animals that could take on this appearance, evolved a new type of animal, and as it could only take on form, that of the human, that is what this species became known by.

From the humans' birth, things in this once peaceful world started to go wrong. At first, the humans kept in their own areas, the cities, towns and villages, keeping an agreement to leave the animals and spirits at peace. But then the machines, the robots were created. At first they were an advancement in technology. But soon, as they became more and more advanced, robots became their own race, with their own minds. They no longer needed humans to exist.

Taking many of the human cities for their own, they destroyed all life in their path. Although they were not alive, they could have almost real emotions, make decisions for themselves. They were the new, the most advanced race, creating any form of warrior to fight battles for them. Instead of joining forces, the spirits, animals and humans only grew more far apart. Feeling the humans had betrayed them by bringing evil to their world, some spirits formed a hatred for humans as well as the robots. Most species of animals tried to keep to themselves, hiding in the depths of the forests and seas, but many were captured or whole clans massacred. In this way, many species were wiped out totally. The only kind daring enough to fight the robots back was the great wolf pack, one of the few animal species who could take the human form also, but they were easily defeated and driven back into the forest.

The robots became more and more cruel in gaining their territory; they used brutal torture, and secretly placed robot genes inside some human children so that as they grew older they would slowly and unknowingly turn into robots, and after a year of becoming fully a robot they would not know their old self. Soon all but one of the cities had been taken over by the robots.

But the humans started to fight back. Somewhere near to the top of the top of the mountain, the humans had built an experimenting lab. A lab for the robots. Here, they would capture any humans that had just become robots, testing on them to see if they could be stopped. They would then destroy them before they forgot their old self, sometimes using cruel methods of torture, taking all their anger out on their situation on this earth.

An old fairy tale spoke of this mountain, how at the top lived something powerful enough to destroy all this hatred, or cause even more. But few believed this story. It was only told to children, to give them hope that a better world might be created for them. Still, the world could not stay like this and be peaceful. Their world would have to change drastically, or else be destroyed by war.


* * * * *


The days were getting darker. Tomoki covered his eyes, the dust whirling in the sharp breeze, which brushed his hair and clothes gently. Climbing down the ladder quickly after saying a swift goodbye to his parents, he stumbled, barely seeing through his tears, which flowed down his red cheeks, flushed from the cold.
Tightening his hands around the straps of his bag, he continued his walk to school. It was an uneventful journey, as usual. The same as every day here. By no means could his life be considered unhappy. His family loved him. He lived in a comfortable house, in fact one of the most beautiful in the whole village, his family owned a large business based in the human city. There had been many reasons as to why they had moved from the city to this remote village before Tomoki had been born. There they had lived in a modern and spacious apartment, but had not felt contented, and so had moved to the small village of Vakeni. Surrounded by a forest of gentle spirits and animals, the humans built tree houses, sometimes a hundred feet in the treetops. They had here little contact with the outside world. Rich enough, the Sakeyri family had sold their business and moved. One reason they had moved though, was for the safety of their oldest son, the most loved in their whole world. His name was Echospheramay, a name used for only the most treasured of all.
He seemed perfect in almost every way. His parents poured gifts upon him, but he appeared not at all spoilt. He was the cleverest in his class, the most artistic, the best at sport and the best looking. Every girl in his class, and even some of the boys, were desperate to go out with him, but he coolly refused each. That was what was strange about him. He had no friends. He could have anyone he chose, but he preferred to be alone. His behaviour seemed so... cold. He was not unkind, but showed little to emotion to anyone. But the one person who adored him most in the world, more than his parents, his 'fan club', was Tomoki.
The one person Tomoki loved most in the world, like so many others, was Echospheramay. Always his idol, his most desperate wish was to be just like him. But how unlike he was. Echospheramay was beautiful, whereas Tomoki shared none of these looks, or his cleverness either. He had tried to grow his hair long like his brothers, but unlike the soft chocolate hair, which fell gracefully around his shoulders, Tomoki's black hair was rough, straggly, and messy looking. Despite being desperate to have a friend, Tomoki had none. No one seemed to want to get to know him, he was always referred to as "Echospheramay's brother" or "The other Sakeyri child". And how he longed for a friend, spent the hours alone in his room while everyone else was outside playing. But despite how much Tomoki adored him, Echospheramay would offer him no comfort. Tomoki would wonder if he even cared for him at all. But he never lost faith in him, stopped believing he could one day be just like him, be loved by everyone.

So, why was it that this boy was crying? The reason was his older brother. For a reason unknown only to himself, this morning Echospheramay had been rude and even colder towards Tomoki this morning. Each little mistake or blunder he criticised, and he left before Tomoki, strange as he usually walked with him to the school. Feeling utterly rejected, Tomoki's eyed faced the floor as he continued his journey. He looked up briefly, as he passed the group of six dead trees, branches waving miserably in the wind. They had been like this for as long as anyone could remember, and no one had ever made the effort to cut them down. People said that a tree spirit lived there, in the form of a young girl named Fawn. Abandoned there by her parents, the girl had caused the trees around her to die and they stayed there in her loneliness. But Tomoki rarely believed in such tales. Like his brother, he found things hard to believe unless he saw them with his own eyes. Averting his gaze back to the floor, he passed the trees, but suddenly stopped as he heard a loud piercing sound, coming from further down the path.
The noise was unbearable; it felt like his head was going to split. High pitched, it sounded like someone screaming in pain... yet at the same time, it was beautiful, terrifyingly beautiful. His bag waving loosely on his back, he sprinted ahead, trying to find the source of the sound; it seemed to be coming from everywhere.
Other people were running too, running with guns in their hands, loading them with bullets. After a minute or so, Tomoki reached a crowd of people, out of breath. A man was aiming a gun and as he fired, the noise stopped as suddenly as it had begun, as if its life had been sucked out of it. Silence fell over the crowd.
Tomoki pushed his way to the front; surprised people were letting him through without trouble, although many worried looks came in his direction.
"It's Tomoki. His brother." Someone said. Tomoki suddenly felt his feet slipping, and he looked down to find his shoes stained crimson, blood was trickling slowly through the crowd. Running faster and faster, it seemed like the sea of people would never end. But as he broke through, a horrifying sight met his eyes.
It was the body of a 16-year-old boy, and he had been shot in several places around his neck. Blood had leaked out into the crowd, from his wounds, his mouth, but by now the flow had stopped, the boy lying in a glistening pool. His eyes were wide open, but staring at something unseen. Tomoki took a shaky step forward.
"Get away from him!" a man yelled, aiming his gun once more at the dead body. "I'll shoot!"
In a burst of tears Tomoki ran forward, throwing his arms around the body, shaking in his sobs. Burying his face into the soft hair of the older boy, his tears fell on the floor, mixing with the blood and dampening his blood stained shirt.
"Get out of the way! You'll be shot!" The man yelled again, the gun in his hand shaking with him.
"You can't..." Tomoki couldn't face him, his eyes closed tightly and holding the boy's body as best as he could in his arms. " Why?" He whispered.


"Why have you killed my brother?"

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